How far can clothing customization go?


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


For context, I started a thread over a month ago about Ustalav's xenophobia (targeting what/whom, commonality of the prejudice, and severity across different sources) for a campaign a number of members of my playgroup are convinced is a pet project I'll never have prepared enough to bring it to the table... Either way, the party is regardless set to contain varying degrees of non-humans or demi-humans, and so I'm deadset on making a lot of the fun and difficulty come from trying to complete heroic tasks whilst trying to discern where they would be most unwelcome and avoiding it and/or revealing their identities there.

So, it brings me to the main topic: EVEN with RAW, starting with your class' starting freebie outfit (such as "Cleric's Vestments") how much customization is recommended to give the PCs for their garments, free or purchased? It IS highly recommended that they cover up their not-so-human features if they have any, use disguise checks first and foremost, followed by bluff checks to cover up discrepencies, followed by diplomacy checks to alleviate the issue if it's complicated further, but I'm unsure if I want the problem to basically completely go away by a PC going "My Cleric Vestments include a particularly shady hood and gloves specially tailored to make my claws appear to be normal fingers" or "My starter outfit terrifically shrouds my tail." Not to mention, I'm aware Ustalav has its share of shady folk, but a party of 5 heavily cloaked individuals looking to solve a mystery/exorcise ghosts/whatever? How many alarms does that set off in townfolks' minds?


I can't answer your question off the top of my head, but could you fill me/us in on just how xenophobic Ustalav is? (Also give details for your instance if different from the standard.)

I did go back and re-read part of the Carrion Crown Player's Guide, and see that people in Ustalav are xenophobic enough to be suspicious of Elves, even more suspicious of Half-Elves (apparently they regard the admixture as even more off-putting), highly suspicious of Gnomes and Half-Orcs, outright hostile to Dhampirs and Orcs, and even suspicious of some non-Ustalavic Human ethnicities (especially Kellid). So that gives me something to start with -- actually, something considerable . . . .

To say something about what you could do with clothing there, I'd need to know something about what average people's clothes look like (at several different socioeconomic levels). Putting on a Qadiran cloak and hood might be almost as bad for your safety as having pointed ears . . . Putting on a Varisian-style scarf and headband might go over better, until you run into the wrong Varisian gang, that insists on a different headband . . . .

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

For ease of comparison, the list of available outfits that can be given to 1st level characters is as follows:

  • Artisan's Outfit: No Mechanical Benefit
  • Cold-Weather Outfit: +5 circumstance bonus on Fort Saves VS cold weather
  • Entertainer's Outfit: No Mechanical Benefit
  • Explorer's Outfit: No Mechanical Benefit (but a neat hat!)
  • Hot-Weather Outfit: +2 on Fort saves vs hot weather, does not stack with Survival bonuses
  • Monk's Outfit: "Can conceal small weapons" and "Sashes are strong enough to serve as short ropes."
  • Peasant's Outfit: No Mechanical Benefit
  • Pickpocket's Outfit: +2 bonus on hiding small objects on your person (sleight of hand)
  • Scholar's Outfit: No Mechanical Benefit
  • Soldier's Uniform: No Mechanical Benefit
  • Diving Suit: +1 to swim.
  • Traveler's Outfit: No Mechanical Benefit

Clothing As Bonus to Disguise: One of these outfits gives a +1 to swim, while another gives a +2 to "hiding small objects on your person." It is certainly within the rules expectations to give a small skill bonus with a starting outfit, but if you're going to give that to your players, make sure they have it written down as a legitimate bonus somewhere (circumstance seems the appropriate bonus type). Accountability is important, and if they need to change clothing for whatever reason, they should know they would lose that bonus. Further, make sure it's specific, like "+2 Bonus on disguise to disguise yourself as another race." (which would negate the normal -2 penalty to do so.)

Clothing VS Ustalavic Society: The further from human the PC's get, the less they'll be trusted by the highly suspicious townsfolk. Humanity is 90% of the Inner Sea's "civilized" racial makeup, so seeing inhuman beings walking around (in an area where historically that's meant imminent death/suffering) will definitely raise some alarms. Heavily cloaked/shaded people walking around will do much the same, because it's the safer bet for the people of Ustalav to assume something is vampire until proven human. To wit, they won't like the PC's obviously hiding themselves, and might even have some official or guard or local hero ask them to reveal themselves, so everyone knows what they're dealing with.


Pickpocket's Outfit could disguise ears/horns/tail? Considering the name, it's probably meant to function the way it sounds like it does.

The starting party is a Skinwalker (but default form is merely a more muscly female) a Catfolk, a Ratfolk wizard necromancer, a Jiang-shi-born Dhampir (besides paler skin, I don't think any obvious visual tells) and a very obvious Tiefling (red skin, horns, a holy mark of Asmodeus on his FOREHEAD) and the player playing the tiefling plans his backup character (a Kuru) to be a Cleric, but disguise/bluff that he's a cleric of Pharasma and assassinate his former character and make a meal of his remains as a typical person might eat venison from a deer he/she'd killed...

The Skinwalker CAN avoid going bestial and rely on bluff jic, the Catfolk needs to hide head, fur, claws, and tail, the dhampir need avoid the sun & positive energy and disguise/bluff to keep the chance of suspicion low, the Kuru needs to keep his teeth under wraps and maybe bluff away his tattoos if not covered, and the tiefling.... all of his skin, + horns and I THINK he has a tail.

Of course I'm considering starting the campaign in Ardis, while the settlement's stats prove its population is mostly just as xenophobic, a lot of the neighborhoods are scarcely populated and a lot of the abandoned buildings are already chock-full of ne'er-do-wells of all kinds, and there is a lot of abandoned real estate. Perhaps they have an easier time getting acclimated to the xenophobia and preparing to conceal what they can about themselves (and/or to thwart whatever mild-to-severe consequences they may face later on) Perhaps they meet with some of their own kind (non-humans and human outcasts) and come to some sort of Underground Railroad-esque alliance.

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